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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28037220">Smells like Christmas Spirit</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ineedapuppyandsomevodka/pseuds/Ineedapuppyandsomevodka'>Ineedapuppyandsomevodka</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Buddie Christmas Prompts [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>9-1-1 (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Buck and Eddie at Christmas, Buddiemas, Buddiemas 2020, Christmas prompts, Cooking, Eddie Diaz wants to make Buck dinner, Fluff, M/M, evan buckley is a troll</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:07:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,980</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28037220</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ineedapuppyandsomevodka/pseuds/Ineedapuppyandsomevodka</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Buck was supposed to come over after one of his shifts, and Eddie wanted to cook him dinner. Sounds simple, right? </p>
<p>Ha, wrong. </p>
<p>Not only did Eddie have to pick Christopher up from Abuela’s and go to the grocery store, but he actually had to figure out how to cook something... and make it edible.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Evan "Buck" Buckley &amp; Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Buddie Christmas Prompts [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2042251</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Buddiemas 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Smells like Christmas Spirit</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Buddiemas day 3: Cooking!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Buck was supposed to come over after one of his shifts, and Eddie wanted to cook him dinner. Sounds simple, right? </p>
<p>Ha, wrong. </p>
<p>Not only did Eddie have to pick Christopher up from Abuela’s and go to the grocery store, but he actually had to figure out how to cook something... and make it edible. </p>
<p>Eddie isn’t a bad cook, as much as Chris and Buck like to tease him, he’s just not the best cook in the world and he’s okay with that. There are few things that Eddie knows how to cook, and cook well... one of those things is tacos. </p>
<p>He feels like tacos are probably too easy. He’s made Buck tacos before, hasn’t he? He should pick something that he hasn’t made him. It’s not that he needs to impress Buck or anything, but it’s the holidays and he invited Buck over for dinner and Christmas movies, and he’s got this fleeting feeling that he should do something a little more festive. </p>
<p>He drives to Abuela’s, trying to think of the best thing he can cook that’s not tacos and he’s drawing a blank. He can cook pasta without burning the house down, but he feels like that’s a cheap shot. Pasta is almost easier than tacos. He thought about breakfast for dinner, but he would almost certainly burn the pancakes, Christopher would complain, and then Buck would end up making the pancakes for him, or they would end up ordering take out. </p>
<p>His mind moved back to tacos... Did he have enough time to marinate steak for Carne Asada? He looked at the clock on his dash and shook his head at himself. There was no way he had enough time to marinate a steak. Fuck. </p>
<p>Beef stroganoff was easy though, and Christopher always liked it... That might be an option. It was probably going to turn out better than tacos, but there weren’t a ton of vegetable options that he felt went well with beef stroganoff, were there?</p>
<p>He pulled into his Abuela’s drive and scrubbed a hand over his face, deciding that vegetables would be an ‘at the store’ issue, and not a ‘before the store’ issue. </p>
<p>He went inside to get Christopher and to say hello to his Abuela and Tia for a brief moment before kissing them on the cheeks with many thanks for watching his son. </p>
<p>Then, they were on their way to the store. </p>
<p>“I’m going to leave you in charge of picking out a vegetable that goes with stroganoff,” Eddie told Christopher as they piled out of the car and walked into the store. </p>
<p>“Okay!” His son grinned, following him. </p>
<p>Eddie quickly came to the realization that he probably should have stopped at the store before he picked Chris up. He loved his son, but he was in a bit of a rush and Christopher liked to stop and look at <i>everything</i>. </p>
<p>“Last time I was there, grandma made a cucumber salad with our stroganoff that I liked,” Christopher said in the produce section. “Do you think that Buck will like that?” </p>
<p>Within a minute, Eddie was on the phone calling his mom, seeing if he could get the recipe for her cucumber salad. It seemed easy enough, so he picked up the ingredients for it, the stroganoff, and let Christopher pick out a dessert in the bakery. </p>
<p>The grocery store only took them... almost an hour. Shit. Buck was going to be at his house before they were even there. </p>
<p>He shot him a quick text, letting him know that he and Chris were running late, then started the journey home. </p>
<p>When they got home, Eddie sent Christopher into the living room to get started on his homework while he got started unpacking the groceries and washing the vegetables. He pulled up a recipe online, just to be safe, and started in on dinner. </p>
<p>“Bucky!” He hears his son say, and the front door latch shut. </p>
<p>“Hey, little man,” Buck replies fondly, and Eddie sees him cross into the living room where Christopher is sitting. “Doing homework?” </p>
<p>“Yeah, our teachers say we’re supposed to do a little bit a day, even though we’re on break. I think it’s stupid, but dad says I have to if I want dessert,” Chris grunts. </p>
<p>“Well, you’ll end up smarter than the rest of us because of it,” Buck ensures and ruffles his hair. </p>
<p>Eddie is cutting the onion when Buck comes into the kitchen, his eyes watery and weepy.</p>
<p>“Woah, woah, are you crying, Eds?” Buck teases, “I didn’t realize I was that offensive to you.”</p>
<p>“You? Offensive? Far from it,” Eddie chuckles, turning to wash his hands once the onion is diced. </p>
<p>“Anything I can help with in here?” </p>
<p>“No, you grab a beer, relax. Tonight’s on me,” Eddie smiles. </p>
<p>“You sure? I’m happy to help cut vegetables,” Buck says, leaning into the counter as Eddie turned the stove on, then added oil and onions. </p>
<p>“We really don’t have many vegetables to cut, unless you really, really want to cut the cucumbers... In which case, by all means,” he gestures to the cucumbers that are drying by the sink. </p>
<p>Buck, in true Buck fashion, finds himself a cutting board and a knife. He grabs the cucumbers and sets them on the cutting board. “What are we hoping for here? Do you want slices? A dice? Cut in half and sliced?”</p>
<p>“Uh...” Eddie makes a circle with his fingers. “Like... a moon shape? I think?”</p>
<p>Buck snorted, his lips pulled down like he was trying his hardest not to laugh. “A moon shape. Okay,” he nods and gets to work. “Do you want them like this thick?” He motioned with his knife. </p>
<p>“Yeah, something like that. Here, I’ll send you the recipe,” he hummed, stirring the onions quickly before he pulled out his phone. He sent him the recipe that his mom sent him, then flipped back to the recipe for the stroganoff. </p>
<p>They worked together well in the kitchen. Eddie was doing okay. Nothing was on fire or burning, and it actually smelled great. The recipe he usually followed was pretty foolproof, but it always turned out good. </p>
<p>“Okay, this just has to simmer for like twenty minutes,” Eddie says, moving to grab a pot. </p>
<p>“Simmer?” Buck raises his eyebrows. “Look at you, using cooking terms! I gotta say, I’m proud of you. Bobby must be wearing off on you.”</p>
<p>“Shut up,” Eddie grins, filling the pot with water. He put the pot on the stove, turned it on, and salted the water. </p>
<p>“You’re gonna have to make me,” Buck says as he rolls his lower lip between his teeth. Was he flirting? Whatever he was doing it was making Eddie’s heart flutter. </p>
<p>“You’re an idiot,” Eddie grins, stepping to his fridge to pull out two beers for them and a juice for Chris.</p>
<p>He hands one of the beers over to Buck and knocks shoulders with him on his way out to the living room and sits down on the couch. Buck follows, plopping down unreasonably close to him.</p>
<p>“Almost done, bud?” Eddie asks, looking over Christopher's shoulder.</p>
<p>“Just two more problems, and then I’ll have today’s and tomorrow's done,” his son replies.</p>
<p>“Look at you, getting ahead of the game,” Buck grins. “Now you don’t have to worry about it tomorrow!”</p>
<p>“You and dad don’t work tomorrow, so you should come with us to the park or something,” Chris says casually. </p>
<p>Buck glanced at Eddie, who just shrugged with a smile. “You’re more than welcome to spend the day with us. We have dinner with Abuela, but I’m sure if I told her you were with us, she’d love to have you.” </p>
<p>He can feel Buck stiffen up beside him like he’s wrestling with what to say and Eddie hates it. “Well I wouldn’t want to impo--”</p>
<p>“You wouldn’t be imposing. I’m pretty sure Abuela likes you more than she likes me,” Eddie interjects easily because it’s true. “You’re family to me, so you’re family to Abuela and she loves you.”</p>
<p>“Only if you’re sure,” he says, still uneasy. </p>
<p>“I’m positive. You wouldn’t be imposing. We love having you around,” he reaches for Buck's hand and gives it a squeeze because dammit, he wants to make sure he knows it. He wants to tell him that he loves more than just having him around, but it’s still too soon, he thinks. </p>
<p>He hands Buck the remote to put something on and sips his beer. They fall into easy conversation with Christopher, Eddie relaxed into Buck’s side. He loves this, and he wants it to be a thing. To be something, and not just a stupid crush where they kiss every once and a while. </p>
<p>He knows that’s a lot, though. He knows he and Buck still have a lot that they need to work out, and Eddie has his own things that he’s working on. At the very least, he thinks they should talk about it. He’s a firm believer in boundaries and guard rails, especially after everything with Shannon. </p>
<p>After a short while, Eddie gets up to go finish dinner. The noodles don’t take very long to cook, so he gets the table set, grabs more beer, then starts to dish everyone up. </p>
<p>The closer to Christmas it gets, the more his little family he’s made for himself here starts to feel like family, and he’s thankful for people in his life like Buck who go out of their way to make the holidays special. He just hopes he makes Christmas special enough for Buck, who deserves the world. </p>
<p>“Dinners ready,” he calls to them, setting the plates on the table. </p>
<p>“Color me impressed, Eddie Diaz,” Buck smiles, following Christopher to go sit down. “Feeding me a meal that you haven’t burned? Should I worry about poison? Have you had a stroke?”</p>
<p>Eddie waits until Chris isn’t looking to flip him off, but smiles nonetheless. “I can cook!” He defends himself.</p>
<p>“You can cook like three things, dad,” Chris deadpans.</p>
<p>Eddie clutches his chest in mock hurt. “I’m wounded. I’ve been shot in a <i>war</i> and that hurt less than this.”</p>
<p>“Don’t be so dramatic,” his son retorts and Buck nearly snorts up his beer.</p>
<p>“Fine, fine,” Eddie rolls his eyes, trying to hold back a laugh. “Food’s neat, let's eat.” </p>
<p>So, they dig in, and dinner is good. It’s not his best work, but it’s not his worst. Buck eats two servings and Christopher clears his plate, so he’s taking it as a win. After dinner, they snuggle up on the couch and watch A Christmas Story, because Buck hasn’t seen it, and they eat the cookies Chris picked out at the store. </p>
<p>By the end of the movie, it’s way past Chris’ bedtime and the kid is half asleep in Bucks lap. They’re exhausted too, so Buck helps Eddie get Chris ready for bed, and then he’s reaching for his keys. </p>
<p>“You can stay the night if you want,” Eddie says, leaning against the wall in his entryway. </p>
<p>“I know, but I’m beat, and my bed sounds really nice right now,” he hums and slips his shoes on.</p>
<p>“Fair,” Eddie nods, stepping into his space. He gives him a hug, holding it for maybe a second or two longer than usual before he pulls away. “Thanks for coming and spending your evening with us.”</p>
<p>“Thanks for cooking for me. We should do that more often,” he replies, lingering in Eddie's bubble. </p>
<p>“I’d love to,” he replies genuinely, finding himself listing forward. </p>
<p>It’s Buck who fills the gap, leaning in to give him a kiss. It’s short and sweet, but Eddie isn’t greedy and will take what he can get. “Goodnight, Eddie, see you tomorrow.”</p>
<p>“Goodnight, Buck,” he says with a smile and watches as the man he’s falling for steps out to his car.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading! Come follow me on <a href="https://www.ineedapuppyandsomevodka.tumblr.com">Tumbr!</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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